Lets hope we see him again.

It has been very hot this week with temps in the high 20′sC. Today is going to be 28C with humidex putting it up to the low 30′s – toasty! Hopefully we can get some more geocaching done soon. We haven’t been able to recently because of all the rain.

We did manage to get out geocaching on Saturday. This was our third trip and this time we managed to get seven caches which more than doubles our existing total. We even managed to go back to one we could not find on our first trip and this time found it straight away – it’s amazing how much easier things are when you know how to use the equipment properly. We are still learning the ins and outs of the GPS gadget, but we are getting there. So now we have found 13 geocaches in total – need to find more to get away from that number!

The birds and animals in the garden are all in the process of reproducing. We have seen baby grackles and starlings about. The killdeer have still not presented their young yet, but they cannot be far off now. We also have the many female squirrels who are either very pregnant or seem to have given birth. The babies won’t be around for a few weeks yet, but there seems to be a lot of nursing mothers about.

The cardinals are also out and about, so hopefully they will have young again as we had last year. Here is the male in our front garden. I always feel these birds should be in some tropical rainforest, not up here in Canada, but I am not complaining.

Next week I am going to be taking part in the Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research. This is an all night event and I hope that it doesn’t rain. Anyone who would like to sponsor me for the event please do so. I attach the link below to make a pledge. This can be used to pledge from anywhere in the world.

On our first trip I managed to find all of the caches, but this time hubby got two of the three. I only got the third because I was the one “allocated” to go into the wooded area to find it and tackle the bugs.

So now we have found six caches and are learning to use the equipment better. I am also reading up on all the bits we need to know to get the most out of the activity. Why is it men can never read the instructions? I think once we get the hang of it properly it will be a really enjoyable hobby.

The wildlife is flourishing and yesterday I managed to get a few pics of the female towhee. She is much duller and browner than the male. He seems to prefer foraging in the front of the house whereas she likes the back.

These are a couple of pics of her collecting stuff and nesting. Now we have to keep an eye on the box to track her progress. Once they have the young they stay in the nest for 4-5 weeks before being weened.

The first cache was along a country road running along side the lake which meant we had great views as we travelled. It got very exciting as we neared the spot and then pulled over to the side of the road to investigate. Because of geocaching etiquette I can not give anything away which would disclose the position of the cache. The only thing I will say is the exact co-ordinates were slightly off and hubby went off to the left to get closer to the coordinates and whilst he did I found it pretty much where we had parked. Very easy. Here is a close up pic of me with the cache. I have cropped it a lot in order to avoid giving away the position.

This is therefore our first ever geocache find.

Next we followed our way to another cache which was in a graveyard. Clues led us to a certain spot then we had to find the cache. Once again I was the one to spot it – again I cannot reveal where – I like all this cloak and dagger stuff! Two caches down.

Next we went to another graveyard for the third cache of the day. This one however was not so easy. We had to find a certain point in the graveyard from which to find the cache. We could not find the actual point and when we used the exact coordinates given it led us outside into the road. We assumed that whoever set the coordinates did so from their car outside and not from the actual cache point. After a long time searching we gave up and put it down to our inexperience – we can try it again another time.

Next we went off to our fourth geocache of the day – another graveyard. This took a bit of searching but once we realized  where it would be I found it quite easily – yes me again. OH always says that I am not very observant and could pass him in the street and not notice. This is probably true, however I do seem to have a knack of finding small camouflaged 35mm film canisters hidden in strange places!

After all this treasure hunting we went to Montanas for dinner and then home. Hubby registered our finds on the geocaching website once home.

I definitely now have the geocaching bug and immediately went to the website to download even more caches – trouble is it has rained pretty much constantly since our first trip, so we are having to wait for the next one.

We finally ordered and received our new geocaching GPS unit and even have a book – Complete idiots Guide to Geocaching – so there is no stopping us now. As we tend to go on drives to no where in particular during the summer we thought we may as well go geocaching as we travel. For anyone not aware of geocaching it is like a high tech treasure hunt which is now really popular all over the world. So now we will drive aimlessly with a purpose!

We are just getting used to the GPS unit and looking into the etiquette of it all and we will get started. We have to buy some bits and pieces to leave in the caches etc, so we will soon be on our way. I will no doubt bore you all with tales of what we find as we go along!

Talking of tales or tails – most of the squirrels in our garden seem to be pregnant – well the females at any rate. The males just have smiles on their faces! None seem to be nesting in our bird boxes yet as they did last year, but no doubt we will soon be seeing tiny squirrels in the garden.

The killdeer look to be having another set of chicks as only one is patrolling the front garden – the other is presumably on the nest. We have observed them having gratuitous sex in the garden – for all to see – they have no shame! So hopefully all the x-rated stuff will produce some more babies who will hopefully fare better than the first batch.